COMMENTARY: What’s the future of affordable housing in Lyons?

PCDC considers ADUs sharing water taps with main house

by Amy Reinholds

Were you seriously interested in building a mother-in-law apartment above your garage or in another building, but you heard it would be too expensive because you would have to pay a water tap fee? Now’s the time to start paying attention.

This coming Monday, Aug. 22, the Lyons Planning and Community Development Commission (PCDC) is continuing a discussion with Town Staff about clarifying definitions in Lyons utility code to make it clear that accessory dwelling units (ADUs) won’t require separate tap fees if added to single-family home residential lots. The PCDC got agreement from the Utilities and Engineering Board (UEB) for this proposed direction at an earlier workshop this month.

The Lyons Board of Trustees directed the PCDC to come up with a work plan that promotes lower-priced housing through rentals of ADUs, referring to the Affordable Housing Resolution that the Board of Trustees passed on April 18 for possible incentives and policies to implement. The first step was meeting with the UEB. The Trustees also directed the PCDC to draft a policy for short-term vacation rentals in Lyons.

Monday’s PCDC workshop is from 7-9 p.m. at the Lyons Town Hall. Although workshops don’t allow public comment, all meetings are open to the public. At the next few PDCD and UEB meetings, the commissioners will craft their recommendations, and then the PCDC will schedule a public hearing about the recommended definitions added to town code. The PCDC is required to hold a public hearing (a meeting where members of the public can comment) before voting on recommended ADU definition changes in town code. When recommendations are voted on by both the PCDC and the UEB, those recommendations then go to the Board of Trustees. So there will be at least two opportunities for the public to officially comment at meetings about proposed changes to town code about ADUs and water tap fees. All meetings are open to the public and posted on the town calendar at www.townoflyons.com/calendar.aspx.

PCDC commissioners, including chair Gregg Oetting, who researched ADU policies in other municipalities, have previously discussed how shared tap fees with the main house are consistent with other towns in Colorado. Some policies even state that the ADU must connect to the same utilities as the original home and not be on a separate utility billing, which encourages landlords to continue to live in the original home instead of renting out both structures to separate households. That way the residential neighborhoods stay residential, even if a single-family home zoned lot allows adding one ADU.

The current Town of Lyons ADU ordinance that the PCDC developed in 2013 was passed by the Board of Trustees passed later that year, following the September flood. It allows small apartments to be permitted on single-family residential lots, but no homeowners in Lyons have applied to participate in the program.

Even if water taps can be shared with the main house, unfortunately, there’s no way to predict how many homeowners in will participate and build new long-term rental apartments on their lots. But if a barrier that many have said made building ADUs financially prohibitive is removed, we’ll see how many Lyons homeowners are sincere about moving forward to provide more rental opportunities.

Even then, ADUs probably won’t be added in all parts of town. Some neighborhoods with homeowners associations are likely to prohibit ADUs.

Finally, keep in mind that more ADUs built in Lyons are only a market-rate solution, with no guarantee to remain affordable in the future. I do agree that if more Town of Lyons residents build legal ADUs, there would be more rental housing stock in Lyons for people who work in town (if owners are prohibited from using ADUs for short-term vacation rentals). This is a helpful step to attempt increasing rentals in Lyons, but not the magic solution that fixes all our affordable housing issues.

For history of post-flood efforts for affordable housing in Lyons, you can read previous columns posted on my blog athttps://lyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, please contact me directly at areinholds @hotmail.com.

Amy Reinholds served on the Lyons Housing Recovery Task Force from December 2013 through its end in February 2015. She is currently a member of the Lyons Human Services and Aging Commission and served as a liaison to the Special Housing Committee in the past year. She has lived in Lyons since 2003 and in the surrounding Lyons area since 1995.

LYONS – In the past month, affordable housing discussions in Lyons focused on rental policies in town for landlords who rent out rooms or apartments in residential neighborhoods, whether as short-term vacation rentals or as lower-cost, market-rate rentals for people who work in town.

The main issues are safety, registration, and limits on short-term vacation rentals to keep residential neighborhoods residential and available for long-term renters.

As a member of the Human Services and Aging Commission, I care about rental safety and registration, and keeping as many long-term rentals in town as possible. Our commission recently reported a goal to the Board of Trustees that we support affordable housing, safe accessory dwelling units, and safety for all renters in town, protections for tenants and landlords, and education that encourages safe, healthy, and fair rentals.

Consider the current situation in the town limits of Lyons. There are two policies in town code that no homeowners have applied for: The accessory dwelling unit (ADU) policy, aimed at increasing long-term rentals, and the Bed and Breakfast ordinance, which allows homeowners who apply for a conditional use of their residential-zoned land to rent out rooms in their home to vacationers, as long as the home is owner-occupied.

Yet homeowners are renting out apartments in basements, garages, or outbuildings on their single-family home residential lots. And Lyons has many listings on the AirBnb website. The Lyons Fire Department and the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department have asked the Town of Lyons for a registry to know where renters (either long-term tenants or vacationers) are staying in apartments in garages or basements, because they need to know when responding to fires or other health and safety calls.

Town staff know of 21 ADUs in Lyons, none of which are legal, because they are on R1 residential lots in town, which only allow one single-family home. Many current owners of homes with ADUs that were built without permits don’t know their apartments are illegal, and the separate buildings have been used that way for years.

Now consider what the Planning and Community Development Commission (PCDC) and the Utilities and Engineering Board (UEB) are discussing with town staff to bring forward as recommendations to the Board of Trustees: a registration of rentals for safety, limits on short-term vacation rentals in single-family home zones, and definitions in Lyons utility code to make it clear that apartments that are part of the ADU policy won’t require separate tap fees.

PCDC commissioners identified the biggest barrier to people participating in the ADU program as tap fees/connection costs for separate ADUs that aren’t part of the original home. At an August 8 workshop, members of the PCDC and the UEB, and town staff, all agreed on a recommended approach to clarify definitions in Lyons utility code about ADUs so they can share the tap with the main house.

PCDC chair Gregg Oetting researched ADU regulations for several other municipalities in Colorado and other states, finding that none require separate tap fees for ADUs. Several of the regulations for the other municipalities specifically state that the main home is required to be owner-occupied. Some even state that the ADU must connect to the same utilities as the original home and not be on a separate utility billing, which encourages landlords to continue to live in the original home instead of rent out both structures to separate households.

The Trustees asked the PCDC and town staff to report back. Policies will be discussed at future meetings with opportunities for public comment. All town meetings are open to the public and posted at www.townoflyons.com/calendar.aspx. Also, focus groups with stakeholders are expected to be scheduled, including meetings with Town of Lyons residents who currently rent out short-term vacation rentals.

The supply of lower-cost market-rate rentals is just one piece in a much larger puzzle to solve our local need for affordable housing. Last month, there was focus on homeownership with the final Board of Trustees approval of subdivision and rezoning that allows 6 lots to be sold to Habitat for Humanity at 2nd and Park. And results from a survey that Mayor Connie Sullivan and the Board of Trustees sent out showed community support for affordable housing in the Eastern Corridor, which would probably be a mix of rentals and homeownership, subsidized with federal funds in one way or another. The town would not develop affordable housing itself but would partner with developers who build affordable housing.

Trustees said they saw the survey with 65% of respondents saying that affordable housing was “essential” or “very important” as a positive endorsement of moving forward if the opportunity presented itself to have the Town of Lyons buy and annex a parcel in the Eastern Corridor. When asked how important it is for affordable housing to be available in Lyons, 41% said “essential,” 24% “very important”, 21% said “somewhat important,” and only 13% said it was “not important.”

There have been no updates from the Board of Trustees about the Town of Lyons purchasing land in the Eastern Corridor, but last year, the Town entered into an option-to-buy contract with the City of Longmont for the former Longmont water treatment land on the north and south sides of Hwy 66, just east of Hwy 36. It turned out that Colorado wasn’t awarded any funds for a National Resilience Competition, but mixed residential and commercial could work if other funding sources are found.

Keep following my columns in both Lyons papers for news about accomplishments to increase affordable housing stock in Lyons after the 2013 floods. For history of post-flood efforts for affordable housing in Lyons, you can read previous columns posted on my blog at https://lyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, contact me directly at areinholds @hotmail.com.

Amy Reinholds served on the Lyons Housing Recovery Task Force from December 2013 through its end in February 2015. She is currently a member of the Lyons Human Services and Aging Commission and served as a liaison to the Special Housing Committee during its existence from April 2014-April 2015. She has lived in Lyons since 2003 and in the surrounding Lyons area since 1995.

COMMENTARY: What’s the future of affordable housing in Lyons?

Planning and Utilities boards agree on next steps for ADU tap fees

by Amy Reinholds

Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are defined in a Town of Lyons ADU policy as small apartments that can be permitted on single-family residential lots in town, but no homeowners in town have applied to participate in the program to build ADUs. A barrier often discussed, especially since the flood, is required tap fees.

At an August 8 workshop, members of the Lyons Planning and Community Development Commission (PCDC) and members of the Utilities and Engineering Board (UEB), and town staff agreed on a recommended approach to clarify definitions in Lyons utility code to make it clear that ADUs as defined under the ADU code won’t require separate tap fees.

Both the PCDC and the UEB are appointed advisory boards that make recommendations to the elected Lyons Board of Trustees. Traditionally, the PCDC has stayed away from recommendations about tap fees, which falls under the responsibility of the UEB to advise about. And the UEB is concerned that policies do not result in placing a greater burden on Lyons utilities that the Town must pay for. However, the four PCDC commissioners, two UEB commissioners, two liaisons from the Board of Trustees, and three staff members who met August 8 agreed on a path to pursue.

“We want to do it right, and we want to encourage ADUs,” said PCDC chair Gregg Oetting.

The PCDC recommended to Town of Lyons Consulting Planner Bob Joseph to draft definitions for ADUs that can be added to town utility code, to clear up ambiguity. Commissioners from both boards and Town staff talked about how town code currently mentions an “additional dwelling unit” structure on a property requires a separate water tap, but it does not define an “accessory dwelling unit” or ADU, which has a specific meaning and purpose as a secondary unit that could share a water tap with the primary housing unit. An ADU could be an allowed accessory use under the same utilities as the main house that could be separated out for maybe both the water taps and the electric community investment fee.

UEB chair Aaron Caplan and UEB member Lee Hall talked about past concerns the UEB has had about making sure that Lyons is not close to its threshold of using all the water allotted under the agreement with the City of Longmont (where Lyons gets its water). However, the current ADU policy describes that ADUs are limited to 800 square feet except for in basements, which can be the same size and the main floor. The small size of the home could keep water use down, and commissioners and staff discussed how other measures like tiered rates could address peak demand for water, and how pay for water use. They discussed how if the water use for the entire property stayed under 270,000 gallon per year (for a ¾ tap, the most common size of taps in residential units), there could be no additional cost or another tap required for structures that meet the definition of ADU. Above that 270,000 gallons per year, land owners are charged $2.75 for each extra gallon.

Jacque Watson, the town staff member who supports the PCDC, said that the water agreement with City of Longmont requires that the Town of Lyons identifies its highest one-day maximum use and has to pay a hefty fee to the City of Longmont, if more water is used. She said some years water use goes about that maximum, but it’s usually due to irrigation. Commissioners and staff talked about how adding ADUs to residential lots would reduce the amount of lawn irrigation. Caplan and Watson said they would review the most recent water agreement with the City of Longmont again to make sure there were no issues with ADUs being on the same utilities as the main house.

According to Oetting, most of the other municipalities that he researched don’t require separate tap fees for ADUs added on to single-family home residential lots. Some policies even state that the ADU must connect to the same utilities as the original home and not be on a separate utility billing, which encourages landlords to continue to live in the original home instead of renting out both structures to separate households. Currently the Lyons ADU policy doesn’t have an owner-occupied requirement, but commissioners talked about how such a requirement could be added.

The PCDC is required to hold a public hearing (which means a meeting where members of the public can comment) before voting on recommended ADU definition changes in town code. When recommendations are voted on by both the PCDC and the UEB, those recommendations then go to the Board of Trustees. So there will be at least two opportunities for the public to officially comment at public meetings about proposed changes to town code about ADUs.

Even with proposed definitions in town code that clarify tap fees, the commissioners, trustees, and staff talked about how ADUs probably won’t be added in all parts of town. Some neighborhoods with homeowners associations are likely to prohibit ADUs.

They also talked about how safety issues for emergency responders to know where renters live in town, and reporting ADU rentals to homeowners insurance are policies that remove risk for landlords who build ADUs, as well as make the ADUs safer for renters.

The other priority issue that the Board of Trustees asked the PCDC advise on is a short-term vacation rental policy for Lyons.

Oetting said almost all municipalities he researched regulate short-term vacation rentals. All require the homeowner to have a business license and provide a 24-hour emergency contact number. Several require proof that homeowners insurance companies know homeowners are renting out rooms or apartments as vacation rentals. Most require that the landowners live more than 6 months of the year in either the primary residence or an ADU on the property while renting out the apartments or rooms. A lot of the municipalities taxed the same as the hotel tax.

Currently in Lyons, a bed and breakfast is allowed by conditional use in residential zones, if homeowners apply for the conditional use.

The PCDC talked about a possible policy with limits on how much of the year homeowners can rent out rooms or apartments for short-term vacation rentals, and how much of the home can be rented out. They liked starting with registration for health and safety, and licensing for revenue. They discussed creating incentives with licensing and taxes. Lyons is a Colorado statutory town, which means it cannot have a “pillow tax” as some municipalities do, but it can have sales tax for both hotels and homeowners who rent out rooms or apartments for vacation rentals. The PCDC commissioners, trustee liaisons, and town staff briefly discussed that a tiered sales tax that could incentivize long-term rentals but could allow two or three weeks a year for vacation rentals.

At the next PDCD and UEB meetings, the commissioners will craft their recommendations, and the PCDC will schedule a public hearing about the recommended definitions added to town code. All meetings are open to the public and posted on the town calendar at www.townoflyons.com/calendar.aspx. After the PCDC public hearings and the UEB recommendations, all information will go to the Board of Trustees for a final decision or action.

While more ADUs built in Lyons are only a market-rate solution, with no guarantee to remain affordable in the future, I agree that they would add more rental housing stock in Lyons for people who work in town (if not allowed to be used for short-term vacation rentals year round). But my opinion remains that ADUs are not the sole solution for affordable housing in Lyons. I’m glad a few other options are being pursued in Lyons. Keep following my columns in both Lyons papers for news about accomplishments to increase affordable housing stock in Lyons. I have pledged to continue writing these columns until the first new affordable housing is created in Lyons. But better yet, go to a meeting yourself so you can witness what is happening first hand.

For history of post-flood efforts for affordable housing in Lyons, you can read previous Lyons Recorder columns posted on my blog atlyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, please contact me directly at areinholds @hotmail.com.

Amy Reinholds served on the Lyons Housing Recovery Task Force from December 2013 through its end in February 2015. She is currently a member of the Lyons Human Services and Aging Commission and served as a liaison to the Special Housing Committee during its existence from April 2014-April 2015. She has lived in Lyons since 2003 and in the surrounding Lyons area since 1995.

COMMENTARY: What’s the future of affordable housing in Lyons?

If you look on websites like Airbnb, you’ll see several rooms or homes available for vacationers to rent by the night in Lyons, but none of those rentals are regulated. No one has applied through the Town of Lyons Bed and Breakfast ordinance for a conditional use of their residential-zoned land. And emergency response officials have asked the Town of Lyons for a registry to know where renters are staying in apartments in garages or basements, as a matter of public safety.

At the Monday, Aug. 1 Board of Trustees meeting, the trustees directed the Planning and Community Development Commission (PCDC) and Town staff to draft a policy for short-term vacation rentals in Lyons.

After reading a document presented by consulting town planner Bob Joseph, there was consensus from the mayor and trustees that there should be limits on the amount of time that homeowners can rent out rooms or apartments as short-term vacation rentals in their single-family home zoned residential lots.

The main reasons discussed for this direction was the shortage of year-round rentals for people who work in town, and the goal to keep Lyons residential neighbors as residential. Joseph’s document stated “Although not mutually exclusive, the goals of increased housing (especially rentals) and the possible goal of allowing short-term vacation rentals are at odds with each other. Short-term vacation rentals will consume available housing stock, and might act to drive up housing costs in the long run.”

The trustees were also interested in seeing owner-occupied short-term vacation rentals because it doesn’t change the nature of residential neighborhoods. They wanted the staff and PCDC to recommend a policy for what should be allowed for short-term vacation rentals if done year-round in residential zones.

The PCDC commissioners and their Board of Trustees liaison Barney Dreistadt have discussed how the PCDC and the Lyons Utilities and Engineering Board should hold a joint workshop to become better informed about their respective concerns around utility connection fees and water taps for ADUs. On Monday night, the Board of Trustees directed Joseph and the PCDC to make that joint workshop the next step.

The trustees also want the PCDC and town staff to recommend a registration program for public safety for homeowners who rent out rooms or apartments in their houses or garages. How broad the registration program is (if it starts with just short-term vacation rentals, or includes all accessory dwelling unit rentals in town) is up to PCDC to recommend. The registration program would allow fire and police officials to know where people are living in town, even if just vacationers there for a few nights. Trustees discussed how other communities have registration programs that make sure the landlords have homeowners insurance.

Joseph’s report stated that one approach for short-term vacation rentals could be to simply enforce the existing conditional use review process on owner occupied short-term vacation rentals under the Bed and Breakfast ordinance, while enforcing the current prohibition of those that are full time commercial operations that are never owner occupied.

Trustee Juli Waugh said she would want to find out where short-term vacation rentals are and limit where they can be in town. Other trustees suggested there could be limits on what would require the conditional use review under the Bed and Breakfast ordinance and determine what number of weeks of short-term vacation rentals would be allowed “for free,” such as two weeks a year.

Town planning staff have met with the PCDC during the past month to discuss possible policies for both short-term vacation rentals and accessory dwelling units (ADUs, or apartments in basements or garages) in Lyons. They reviewed policies in other municipalities in Colorado. The document that Joseph prepared said that short-term vacation rentals are known to be difficult and time consuming to regulate successfully. Fees associated with annual permits or fines for violations are usually set high enough to recover the costs of administering and enforcing the program.

The document recommends that use of ADUs as short-term vacation rentals should be prohibited if ADUs are to remain useful as a housing option. It also states that the water service agreement with the City of Longmont should be reviewed to see if it places any constraints on the possible discount of ADU water service by the Town. The trustees agreed.

Joseph’s staff report said that a grace period along with other incentives to inspect and permit existing un-permitted ADUs should be considered. However, it also said that the Town of Lyons cannot absorb the cost of inspection by Town staff, as is done in some larger municipalities that employ full time in-house building inspectors on staff.

Joseph’s report stated that the use of HUD-inspected manufactured housing units might be an option for detached ADUs, but some related design guidelines might be useful, and the use of “Tiny Home” RVs as ADUs would require a significant local amendment to the building code and possibly related design guidelines.

There is an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) policy in Lyons (intended to increase the stock of long-term rentals in town), but no homeowners in Lyons have applied to participate in the program. PCDC commissioners previously identified the biggest issues as tap fees and connection costs for separate ADUs that aren’t part of the original home. PCDC chair Gregg Oetting researched ADU regulations for Longmont, Golden, Estes Park, Boulder, and Loveland, as well as Fresno, Calif., and found that none require separate tap fees for ADUs. Several of the regulations for the other municipalities specifically state that the main home is required to be owner-occupied. Some even state that the ADU must connect to the same utilities as the original home and not be on a separate utility billing, which encourages landlords to continue to live in the original home instead of renting out both structures to separate households.

Town staff know of 21 ADUs in Lyons, none of which are legal, because they are on R1 residential lots in town, which only allow one single-family home. Many current owners of homes with ADUs that were previously built without permits don’t know their apartments are illegal, and the separate buildings have been used that way for years.

More PDCD workshops on this topic will be scheduled, including meeting with the Utilities and Engineering Board for further discussion and sharing research on tap fees for ADUs in other towns. Focus groups with stakeholders are expected to be scheduled, including meetings with Town of Lyons residents who currently rent rooms or apartments for short-term vacation rentals on sites like AirBnB and VRBO.

Keep up with upcoming Board of Trustees and PCDC meetings and all town meetings, which are open to the public and posted on the town calendar at www.townoflyons.com/calendar.aspx. And keep following my columns in both Lyons papers for news about accomplishments to increase affordable housing stock in Lyons. For history of post-flood efforts for affordable housing in Lyons, you can read previous Lyons Recorder columns at www.lyonsrecorder.com/index.php/opinions/40-housing. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, please contact me directly at areinholds @hotmail.com.

Amy Reinholds served on the Lyons Housing Recovery Task Force from December 2013 through its end in February 2015. She is currently a member of the Lyons Human Services and Aging Commission and served as a liaison to the Special Housing Committee in the past year. She has lived in Lyons since 2003 and in the surrounding Lyons area since 1995.

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So how did this What’s the future of affordable housing in Lyons? mission of mine get started? Why did I become stubbornly optimistic that new affordable housing could work in Lyons, Colo., our town of less than 2,000 people, still recovering after devastating flooding in September 2013?

You could say it all started when a majority of Town of Lyons voters in a March 2015 special election mail ballot voted down a proposal for 50-70 affordable housing units proposed for 5-7 acres in the Bohn Park. The vote was 614 against the proposal and 498 for the proposal. That’s when I gathered together people who said they had other ideas that would work better and encouraged them to get to work. That’s when I pledged to write a WTF column in every edition of the weekly Lyons Recorder and in the monthly Redstone Review until new affordable housing is created in Lyons. I’m still writing those columns.

Or, maybe it all started when I joined the Housing Recovery Task Force in the months following the flood, in December 2013. I embarked on a series of volunteering on town advisory boards and commissions, attending marathon meetings, learning about flood recovery, resilience, other communities’ disaster stories, relief organizations, and government agencies and regulations.

But just as natural disasters change everyone they touch in a community, the widespread floods of September 2013 in Colorado were the original instigator of my current calling as an advocate, reporter, fact-checker, and town crier for affordable housing.

Thanks for reading, for sharing your stories, for dedicating your time, and for daring to hope with me,

Editor/Author of this blog

Amy Reinholds served on the Housing Recovery Task Force in Lyons, Colo., from December 2013 through its end in February 2015. She is currently a member of the Lyons Human Services and Aging Commission and served as a liaison to the Special Housing Committee during its existence from April 2015-April 2016. She has lived in Lyons since 2003 and in the surrounding Lyons area since 1995.